Chapter 583

Three months later.

On an unnamed island in the vast ocean, one not even marked on any map.

The original sounds of insect chirps and bird calls suddenly ceased, the wind and wave sounds also abruptly stopped, and in an instant everything fell into utter silence.

In such stillness, there seemed to be a faint breathing sound again.

After everything seemed to have frozen and stagnated for a few seconds, with the appearance of the breathing sound, things began to become lively and vibrant once more.

It changed from a JPG to a GIF.

Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing opened their eyes at the same time: "Master has emerged from seclusion."

As the words fell, Tang Luo, who had been in seclusion deep within the island, appeared on the shore, slightly tilting his head to gaze at the sky, exhaling a breath.

The thick cloud layer high in the sky was instantly torn apart into two halves, the sea of clouds surging and gradually disappearing.

Sunlight poured down, the sea surface shimmering with rippling light, appearing as if gold were glittering.

The waves surged, a pair of massive dragon horns broke the surface, followed by a ferocious and majestic dragon head.

Perched atop it was the Heavenly Howling Dog, shaking its body, shedding seawater, its fur becoming fluffy once more.

She leapt up, jumping onto Tang Luo's shoulder, meowing twice, rubbing her head against his chin.

Her size had increased considerably compared to before, making it somewhat difficult to sit on Tang Luo's shoulder.

She simply lay down, draped over Tang Luo's shoulder, but then felt it wasn't quite right; turning her body, at first glance she resembled a white fox-fur scarf.

Ao Yulie transformed into human form, leaping from the water to Tang Luo's side, eagerly saying: "Master, this time I didn't slack off."

"Hmm, not bad." Tang Luo praised him.

"Master, how is your condition?" Zhu Bajie asked.

"Six point nine." Tang Luo said.

Now his invulnerability limit was six point nine percent of his strength, a significant improvement over the previous six point two percent, constituting a considerable increase.

"Has the recovery slowed down?" Zhu Bajie expressed some doubt.

According to the quantity of Sacred Hearts, and with this acquisition of immense merit, Tang Luo's recovery should have been better.

"After I consumed part of the Sacred Heart, its effect diminished." Tang Luo said, "On the contrary, mastering this special Summoning Heart has made me adept at handling it."

He held the special Sacred Heart in his palm; due to its summoning ability, it was simply called the Summoning Heart.

"Come look." Tang Luo raised his hand gently upward.

The Summoning Heart flew into midair.

In the eyes of those present, the world instantly changed, as when Tang Luo first saw it, as if they were immersed in chaos.

"These light points?" Zhu Bajie furrowed his brow, examining closely.

"Are they changing?" Ao Yulie said, "Even the surrounding chaos is not unchanging, but constantly shifting."

"Exactly." Tang Luo said, "The current situation is even worse than the disconnection of realms."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva had once clearly told Tang Luo and them that the Mountains and Seas Realm had shattered, fragmenting into countless worlds, realms disconnected.

Tang Luo and them using the Divine Demon Game to traverse was a good thing.

But now, using the Summoning Heart, as Tang Luo's control over it strengthens, clues can be found, and the situation is not merely realm disconnection.

Previously, Tang Luo and them thought that between worlds, it was like different fruits and leaves growing on the same great tree.

Only by following the branches and veins could one reach different worlds.

Otherwise, it would be like falling from the tree, plummeting into the void chaos and getting lost.

But upon true observation, it is not so.

Where is there any great tree and its fruits and leaves?

Clearly, it is a ceaselessly flowing great river, with worlds within it like stones, aquatic plants, and other debris constantly sinking, floating, and shifting direction.

Constantly undergoing dynamic change, the danger of departing a world has greatly increased.

Far from being a mere "static" comparison.

"The Mountains and Seas Realm before, the Nine Heavens above, the Boundless Bitter Sea were not like this." Zhu Bajie said.

Although the Mountains and Seas Realm is vast beyond compare, it still has boundaries.

Going upward, the Mountains and Seas Realm has nine heavens, thirty-six layers in total, all considered traversable, and the strong can even surpass the thirty-six heavens and remain.

But continuing upward, one gradually enters the land of chaos, with no direction, no heavenly or earthly qi, and even no concept of space.

A vast expanse of unknown, perilous void chaos.

Going downward is the endless sea, called the Bitter Sea in Buddhist tradition.

The situation is the same as above the Nine Heavens, equally a chaos, easily leading to loss.

At the farthest reaches, where the Nine Heavens' endless sea meets sky and sea, they become one.

The Mountains and Seas Realm is not closed, yet it is also closed.

Even the strongest few of the Mountains and Seas Realm, like the Tathagata and the Supreme Elder, dare not guarantee that venturing deep into chaos will allow a smooth return to the Mountains and Seas Realm.

The Buddhist saying "The bitter sea is boundless; turning back is the shore" is based on this situation.

But at that time, that chaos which caused people to lose themselves was at least static, whereas what is seen now is constantly changing.

"Leaving a world truly means death." Ao Yulie said.

With their abilities, truly wanting to leave a world is certainly not impossible.

But after going out, one may not necessarily be able to return.

Now, looking at it, not only can one not return, but the probability of dying outside is nearly ninety-nine percent!

"No need to be so pessimistic." Zhu Bajie said, "Before, if one remained still and got lost, once strength was exhausted, one could only wait for death. Now, with constant change, if luck is good, one might still collide with other worlds."

"This turbulence." Ao Yulie shuddered, "I can at most resist for half a minute."

"Not all places are that dangerous." Zhu Bajie looked around, "At least the area around the light points is relatively stable, and there are other places that appear somewhat stable as well."

I don't know what kind of place that unspeakable Return to the Void is.

Tang Luo put away the Summoning Heart, and everyone detached from the "holographic image."

"Next time we find a world rich in heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, we can summon Nezha over." Tang Luo said.

The Summoning Heart has gathered many divine hearts, its power is abundant, and it can now perform summoning.

Even if we summon Nezha now, it wouldn't be a problem, but the real world has little heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, so Ao Yulie can only slightly enhance his strength by leveraging geographical advantage.

Nezha would then be unable to have any recovery in the real world.

"Leave ten divine hearts as backup." Tang Luo then took out some more divine hearts, "You guys divide these among yourselves."

These divine hearts are all ownerless; after Tang Luo refined some of them, he felt the effect weakened, so he stopped using them.

The remaining ten are reserved as backup power for the Summoning Heart, and the rest are left for a few disciples to refine, which also benefits them.

Originally, it was natural to first let Tang Luo, who is both the strongest combatant and the most severely injured, recover.

Ao Yulie, the Celestial Hound, and Sha Wujing currently have no injuries whatsoever.

Zhu Bajie's injury is not serious, poses no major hindrance, and is more of an emotional wound—deep affection has left regret since ancient times, this regret lingers endlessly.

Now that Tang Luo doesn't need them, nobody will be polite anymore.

Immediately, they began refining those divine hearts.

Tang Luo just stood nearby, guarding the Dharma for them; anyway, everyone is quite idle.

Similar to Tang Luo's situation, after everyone refined a few more, the effect of the divine hearts weakened.

So everyone simply stopped refining them, and the remaining ones were similarly kept as backup.

If someday we need to summon but lack "power," that would be awkward.

"What, you saw the previous gods and demons walking?"

The Dragon King's title—Kongming used words that sounded very surprised, his tone was very calm, and his expression was also very tranquil.

Regarding Tang Luo bringing all kinds of bad news, he has already become immune to it.

Because considering those things is just worrying needlessly, worrying needlessly—do you understand? It's like thinking about going bald won't help; in the end, we can only choose to keep moving forward, taking one step at a time, and when the boat reaches the bridgehead, it will naturally go straight.

"He used something called 'Source,' relying on it to detach from the gods and demons game." Tang Luo said, "According to what this person said, the final destination of gods and demons wanderers is a Return to the Void where life is worse than death; I don't know the specifics, but that guy took one look and pissed himself."

"……Those failed gods and demons wanderers—could it be they didn't die, but entered some kind of Return to the Void?" Kongming asked.

"I don't know." Tang Luo said, "But our mission does have an end; we just don't know where the upper limit lies, or when we'll become 'the previous batch of gods and demons wanderers.'"

"Senior Chijing has undertaken over thirty missions in total." Kongming said, "It seems we still have time."

In the later stages of the mission, the time spans become very long.

Tang Luo's three or four months still belong to the ultra-fast category; normally, his mission intervals would be at least seven or eight months long.